The Mercenary, the Dreamer, and the Hero: When the Hiring Process Matters Most:

Cutting corners in the hiring process is probably the easiest way to slowly bleed your company to death with all of the extra expenses incurred, as well as the costs of lost productivity.  Probably a good example of this is when I was hiring engineers to work in Kabul, Afghanistan.  We were hiring people to work in a war-torn, third-world country where just across the border in Iraq, the decapitation of American contractors was being video taped.  With all of the violence the media portrayed with the road side bombs, kidnappings, and threats from Al Qaeda affecting the willingness of candidates one would think that finding candidates would be hard.  Perhaps we were fortunate the bottom dropped out of the U.S. labor market, as there were plenty of candidates ready to go.  However,  finding a candidate that would stay with us on the project once we hired and mobilized them was the real challenge.

There are different types of people with different mindsets willing to work in a war zone. The most common type of candidate is the Mercenary.  Some might say a candidate has a mercenary mentality where they will work for the highest bidder, regardless of the danger, location, or duration of the assignment.  The problem with hiring someone with a mercenary mentality for a global contractor is the moment someone offers more money in a safer part of the world, that employee drags up and leaves without thinking twice.  While its hard to blame them for their decision, the costs associated with cutting corners and not thoroughly screening professionals to go work in Afghanistan can be devastating to the company.  The on boarding and administrative costs of bringing someone from Vietnam to the U.S., including the costs of travel, food, rental cars, visas, passports, and other miscellaneous expenses, then shipping the person to Dubai and onward to Afghanistan is a very expensive.  Based on turnover estimate tools, it can cost the company up to $500,000.

Another type of candidate was the Dreamer.  Hiring a dreamer really highlighted the problem with not screening thoroughly.  Perhaps they wanted the job because of the foreign expatriate salary uplifts, or they woke up one day and thought they needed some adventure in their lives.  Regardless of how they romanticized the Afghanistan adventure, the filth and poverty, let alone the violence, was enough to have people packing their bags as soon as they could find another job.

Figuring out what to screen for and how to tell if someone was going to stay on the project was another challenge.  Making sure we were informing the individual of the risks and dangers up front was a big component to selecting the right person.  We also looked for those who had prior experience working in war zones, third-world countries, or had military experience.  If the new hire had exposure to a similar environment, they generally would not panic when someone bombed the embassy 3 blocks down the street.  Thus, we would not have to replace individuals as fast.

At the end of the day, what we really wanted to find in someone willing to take one of these assignments was that they cared about the cause!  We wanted the Hero.  The Hero was someone who thrived on bringing power, clean water, and jobs to Afghanistan - fulfilling the noble side of the contract.  Sure the money helped, but what was more important was doing something good for the world.  Maybe that sounds flubby, but those who lasted were the ones who wanted to make a difference.  They wanted to make the world a better place.   They cared about the Afghan people.  They felt sad for the hungry children, jobless fathers, and hard working mothers.

Cutting corners in the interview process may cost the company more in some situations than others, but the HR principals are effective counter measures regardless of whether we are hiring someone for a cushy job in the 'burbs or a war zone in the Middle East.  The screening and hiring process really make the difference.